Anonymous wrote:

Your kid needs to show interest, convince the safety why they want to attend. Safeties do exist. A school with a 50-60%+ acceptance rate does not just reject all high stats applicants. But your "why School X" essay has to be meaningful, you need to show interest and contact admissions/dept chairs/etc and let them think you actually want to attend. If you do that, you will get into at least 50% of your safeties. And you should have at least 2 safeties that have 75%+ acceptance rates...those do NOT yield protect, they are going to accept your high stats kid, 99% of the time.

Anonymous wrote:The test has changed - it's easier to get a good score now. They also allow superscoring, which means if you take the test 3 times, they will only use your best score from each section of the test. For the ACT, this is particularly relevant since there are 4 sections.

Anonymous wrote:Great point about many schools going TO. That said, I'm also seeing an incredible number of students with 1400+ SAT scores. I get that I need to not draw from my experience in the 90s when it was rare to hear of someone getting such high or near perfect scores but what is up with so many high scores these days? Has the scoring changed since I remember it? Or has the test itself gotten easier? Or maybe those are the only ones we hear about on here?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ full disclosure - I am also the parent of a current senior. Is it the worst year? All I know is that the US college admission process, when you want selective schools, is very stressful compared to those in other countries.

Because in other countries, your kids are tracked starting at age 11/12. A one day test at that age determines your path thru rest of MS/HS level. If you do poorly then, you are not on the STEM college track or even the humanities/SS college track, you are on the "not going to college" track. So by time you reach 12th grade level, you are only competing with the kids on your track. It's hard to switch tracks (unless you go expensive private).

IMO, I'd much rather let my kid (and others) have the chance to grow in their teens and be able to pick what track/majors they want at the college level, not at age 11/12. I know way too many kids who didn't blossom until late HS or college.

+1 my DS especially was a mediocre student in middle school. Friends who hadn't spent much time with us during HS were really surprised at his college outcomes because they didn't know that by senior year of HS he had turned into a math super star, taking nearly all AP classes and straight As in 11-12th grade. Definitely heard some "how did HE get in there when X (great MS student) did not?"

Anonymous wrote:I think people are missing the math on reaches.

My kid is waiting on 5 reach RD schools. College vine says we have the following chances to get in:

25%
20%
20%
15%
15%

So chance of rejection:
75%
80%
80%
85%
85%

Multiply all the rejection % .75*.8*.8*.85*.835 = 35%

We have a 35% chance to be rejected by the 5 remaining reaches. So he’s not counting too much on the reaches.

And that’s with a good recommendation and good essays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.7/1300s (and submitted) kid did well. My feeling is that some people are overestimating their odds given the stats, AND not playing the ED game if they are in the fortunate position to do so. ED1 to a reach, fine. If it doesn’t work out and it’s a deferral, ED2 somewhere more reasonable for gods sake unless your kid is satisfied with a couple safeties they hopefully got into EA. Don’t hang around waiting on the ED1 deferral which is likely NOT to happen. Play the odds. Our kid wanted to wait out RD from the ED1, we and her counselor strongly advised ED2 to her 2nd choice, and she got in and was THRILLED. Just my two cents from our experience.

Love how you throw that in there. As you know, many people are shut out of this due to not being in a position to do so.

Have you run the NPC? If the college is not affordable, it is such whether ED or RD, so there is no reason you cannot apply ED if there is a clear first choice.

It's not really that black and white.

And furthermore, if it's not affordable at all, they are shut out altogether. The point is that the MONEY matters. A lot. Even if they are smart enough, capable enough, and ambitious enough to want a top school. You all come on here like is so super easy for everyone to just apply full pay at the top schools.

It isn't. And that should be acknowledged as a problem more widely in this country. Esp. when going to a low ranked school can keep you perpetually in the plebe class. Look at all the smug opinions of the various schools on this board . . . .

The thing is everyone is subject to the same financial aid formula. So you don't need to be full pay--you just need to save what is estimated to be reasonable based on your income/assets. And there is room for exacerbating expenses like medical expenses to be figured in. You may not like that number, but we're all subjected to the same financial assessment. ED doesn't require being full pay--it requires being able to pay what you are estimated to need based on a federal and sometimes also institutional formula. We're all expected to save some, cash flow some and borrow some.

And there's little evidence that going to a low-ranked school holds you back. Students that could get into a T20 school have similar outcomes if they go to even a much lower ranked school. On average the only real social mobility factor from college ranking is if you are low-income and go to a top school. Otherwise it really is the student not the school.

You are still making the point. "You just need to save." Oh, is that all?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.7/1300s (and submitted) kid did well. My feeling is that some people are overestimating their odds given the stats, AND not playing the ED game if they are in the fortunate position to do so. ED1 to a reach, fine. If it doesn’t work out and it’s a deferral, ED2 somewhere more reasonable for gods sake unless your kid is satisfied with a couple safeties they hopefully got into EA. Don’t hang around waiting on the ED1 deferral which is likely NOT to happen. Play the odds. Our kid wanted to wait out RD from the ED1, we and her counselor strongly advised ED2 to her 2nd choice, and she got in and was THRILLED. Just my two cents from our experience.

Love how you throw that in there. As you know, many people are shut out of this due to not being in a position to do so.

Have you run the NPC? If the college is not affordable, it is such whether ED or RD, so there is no reason you cannot apply ED if there is a clear first choice.

It's not really that black and white.

And furthermore, if it's not affordable at all, they are shut out altogether. The point is that the MONEY matters. A lot. Even if they are smart enough, capable enough, and ambitious enough to want a top school. You all come on here like is so super easy for everyone to just apply full pay at the top schools.

It isn't. And that should be acknowledged as a problem more widely in this country. Esp. when going to a low ranked school can keep you perpetually in the plebe class. Look at all the smug opinions of the various schools on this board . . . .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 3.7/1300s (and submitted) kid did well. My feeling is that some people are overestimating their odds given the stats, AND not playing the ED game if they are in the fortunate position to do so. ED1 to a reach, fine. If it doesn’t work out and it’s a deferral, ED2 somewhere more reasonable for gods sake unless your kid is satisfied with a couple safeties they hopefully got into EA. Don’t hang around waiting on the ED1 deferral which is likely NOT to happen. Play the odds. Our kid wanted to wait out RD from the ED1, we and her counselor strongly advised ED2 to her 2nd choice, and she got in and was THRILLED. Just my two cents from our experience.

How can you apply ED to two different schools? I thought the point of ED is that it is for one school only?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're thinking about it all wrong. There are many more great schools, students, and professors than there were when we were kids. That's cause for celebration, not despair. It's only if you refuse to broaden your view to acknowledge that improvement beyond the traditional elites that things look grim. Adjust your thinking to fit reality for the sake of your own mental health--and especially for your kid's.

You are really lacking in empathy.

Anonymous wrote:I like the UK system more. One can only apply to a max of 5 schools. There is no "holistic" BS. They look at your test scores, your grades and your essay is about what and why you want to study what you want to intend to study.
Actually, most higher ed admissions worldwide is not holistic but performance based. Only the US has this social engineering game with college admissions.

Anonymous wrote:VA Tech says it is very important in the essays to write how the student would be a part of the community and what goals would be at VT and how VT would help achieve them. School counselors had spoken to a reader and were emphatic.

Don’t know how much it counts, but they said that it is “very important”. Writing generically is no good. Has to be specific to what the student would do at VT and why they want to be there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When applying to colleges and universities, applying to at least 3 safeties is the most important. If a student accurately identifies & applies to 3 safeties, then the number of apps to other schools should not be a concern.

If up to me, I would limit students to 12 applications although 10 is also a reasonable limit.

With high stats kids being yield protected from safeties, it doesn't seem like safeties exist anymore.

Your kid needs to show interest, convince the safety why they want to attend. Safeties do exist. A school with a 50-60%+ acceptance rate does not just reject all high stats applicants. But your "why School X" essay has to be meaningful, you need to show interest and contact admissions/dept chairs/etc and let them think you actually want to attend. If you do that, you will get into at least 50% of your safeties. And you should have at least 2 safeties that have 75%+ acceptance rates...those do NOT yield protect, they are going to accept your high stats kid, 99% of the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When applying to colleges and universities, applying to at least 3 safeties is the most important. If a student accurately identifies & applies to 3 safeties, then the number of apps to other schools should not be a concern.

If up to me, I would limit students to 12 applications although 10 is also a reasonable limit.

With high stats kids being yield protected from safeties, it doesn't seem like safeties exist anymore.

Not all schools yield protect. If it does, it's not a safety.

THIS. Not sure why some here can't grasp that.

NP. Agree, schools that yield protect are not safeties. Food for thought: are there schools which now yield protect, but didn't appear to yield protect prior to test optional admissions?

Many colleges outsource yield management to enrollment management consultants for big bucks. Those consultants use algorithms. The algorithms in the past incorporated score data and test optional students were but a tiny slice of the big picture. That all changed, of course, and the portion of test optional applicants is now much bigger and more likely to enroll than a score-submitter.

It seemed that, in the past, some high-acceptance-rate colleges might accept several high stats applicants and anticipate that only a small fraction of those would choose to attend. Now, there is a sense that the algorithms cannot handle that, and so instead the high stats applicants are simply denied. Something is not right with the algorithms if high stats students are being denied from colleges with 80%+ acceptance rates.

This is why I'm saying safeties don't exist anymore. It doesn't make sense that a school would reject a high stats student if they accept so many applicants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When applying to colleges and universities, applying to at least 3 safeties is the most important. If a student accurately identifies & applies to 3 safeties, then the number of apps to other schools should not be a concern.

If up to me, I would limit students to 12 applications although 10 is also a reasonable limit.

With high stats kids being yield protected from safeties, it doesn't seem like safeties exist anymore.

Not all schools yield protect. If it does, it's not a safety.

THIS. Not sure why some here can't grasp that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When applying to colleges and universities, applying to at least 3 safeties is the most important. If a student accurately identifies & applies to 3 safeties, then the number of apps to other schools should not be a concern.

If up to me, I would limit students to 12 applications although 10 is also a reasonable limit.

With high stats kids being yield protected from safeties, it doesn't seem like safeties exist anymore.